Download Chapter 10 Section 5 Notes

Chapter 10 Section 5
A Nation Divided Against Itself
5/24/2017
1
Main Idea
• After Lincoln's election as President in 1860, seven
southern states left the Union.
• In April 1861, the first shots were fired, and the
nation plunged into civil war.
• As 1860 began and a new presidential election
approached, it was clear that most Northerners
would not want a Southern president.
• Southerners would not accept a leader from the
North.
• Could the Union survive this 1860 election???
5/24/2017
2
Lincoln, Politics, and Slavery
• A frontier upbringing
– Abraham Lincoln was born in a one-room cabin near Louisville,
Kentucky, to poor parents who owned no slaves. Lincoln’s parents
opposed slavery, and they moved to the Indiana Territory in 1816,
settling near the Ohio River.
• Lincoln’s early politics
– In 1834, at 25, he was elected to the Illinois General Assembly, serving
four terms. Lincoln studied law at home, becoming licensed to practice
law in 1836. In 1842, he married Mary Todd, the daughter of a wealthy
Kentucky slaveholder. By then he was practicing law full-time.
• Lincoln in Congress
– In 1846 Lincoln successfully ran for Congress. Lincoln charged President
Polk, a slaveholding Democrat, with starting the Mexican-American
War in order to spread slavery. Lincoln opposed slavery, but he
believed each state had to decide. Lincoln’s proposal for compensation
emancipation received little support, and he resigned from Congress in
1849 and returned home to practice law.
Lincoln and Douglas Clash
Lincoln
returns
“A house
divided”
LincolnDouglas
debates
After the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act,
Lincoln returned to public life.
Lincoln helped organize the Illinois Republican
Party in 1856. He opposed Stephen Douglas’s bid
for a third term in the U.S. Senate. Lincoln spoke
eloquently at his nomination, taking the most
radical stance against slavery with the prediction
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
The debates were a series of public meetings
where Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debated the
issues of their Senate campaign. While Douglas
spoke with great flair, Lincoln’s manner was mild.
His strength lay in the logic and reasoning of his
ideas.
Lincoln and Douglas Clash
The Freeport Doctrine
• The second debate was the
most critical.
• Lincoln challenged Douglas to
explain how people could use
popular sovereignty to keep
slavery out of a place when
the Dred Scott decision had
said they could not.
• Douglas’s reply came to be
known as the Freeport
Doctrine. “If the people are
opposed to slavery they will
elect representatives to that
body who will by unfriendly
legislation . . . prevent the
introduction of it into their
midst.”
Lincoln’s social views
• Lincoln stressed the
immorality of slavery in the
debates.
• Douglas referred to Lincoln’s
party as Black Republicans
and painted an image of a
society where the races were
equal, pressing Lincoln on
citizenship for blacks.
• Backed into a corner, Lincoln
said, “I will say that I am not,
nor have ever been in favor of
bringing about in any way
the social and political
equality of the white and
black races.”
The Debates’ Significance
• Deciding who won
– Douglas retained his Senate seat, but most historians judge Lincoln
to have won the debates. He had argued the more famous Douglas
to a draw and in the process made himself a national figure.
• Supporters
– Douglas’s statements caused him to lose support of southern
Democrats, which proved critical when he faced Lincoln again in the
presidential election. Lincoln’s moderate positions increased his
standing among northerners, but southerners still thought Lincoln
was a serious threat to slavery.
• Speaking to the people
– Lincoln and Douglas took their arguments directly to the people
and made the issues of the day clear to the nation. The outcome
directly affected the presidential election of 1860.
The Election of 1860-Democratic Party
• the Democratic Party met in Charleston, South
Carolina, in April 1860 to nominate its candidate for
President
• it was still a national party-covered both N+S.
• Southern Democrats argued that the government
should protect slavery in the territories, while
Democrats from the North stood by the idea of popular
sovereignty
• In the months ahead, the split within the Democratic
Party became official.
• Southern Democrats nominated John C. Breckinridge,
who wanted to expand slavery in the territories.
• Northern Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas of
Illinois, who supported popular sovereignty.
5/24/2017
7
Democratic Split in 1860
John C. Breckinridge
5/24/2017
Stephen Douglas
8
Election of 1860-Constitutional Union Party
• In the meantime, moderate
Southerners who had belonged to
the Whig and American parties met
in Baltimore to form their own new
party.
• These Southerners, formed the
Constitutional Union Party.
• They nominated John Bell of
Tennessee, a moderate slaveholder,
for President
5/24/2017
9
Election of 1860-Republican Party
• The Republican Party met in
Chicago to nominate their
candidate
• Abraham Lincoln, offered more
moderate views on slavery while at
the same time standing firmly
against its spread into the
territories.
• Although Lincoln was little known
outside his own state, the
convention delegates nominated
him for President.
5/24/2017
10
Election of 1860
• The November election proved that the division between
North and South was beyond repair.
• National parties no longer existed
• In the South, the race was between Bell and Breckinridge.
(Lincoln's name did not even appear on many southern
ballots.)
• In the North, voters chose between Lincoln and Douglas.
• Lincoln won in every free state except New Jersey, where the
electoral votes were split between the two candidates.
• Breckinridge, meanwhile, won North Carolina, Arkansas,
Delaware, Maryland, and the states of the Lower South—
Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and
South Carolina.
• Bell carried Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia.
• Douglas took Missouri in addition to some of New Jersey's
electoral
votes
5/24/2017
11
Election of 1860:
Main Candidates
Abraham
Lincoln
(Republican)
Stephen
Douglas
(Northern
Democrat)
John
Breckinridge
(Southern
Democrat)
John Bell
(Constitutional
Union)
* Lincoln won the election.
Election of 1860
5/24/2017
13
The Lower South Secedes
• Southerners were outraged that a President could
be elected without any southern electoral votes.
• The national government, it seemed, had passed
completely out of their hands.
• Planters and others who backed slavery called for
the South to secede, or withdraw, from the Union
• The secessionists, or those who wanted the South
to secede, argued that since the states had
voluntarily joined the United States, they also could
choose to leave it.
5/24/2017
15
Secession!
Southerners and secession
Southerners’ support for secession was not universal. In
some conventions 30 to 40 percent voted against
secession. Some wanted their states to issue a final set of
demands to the federal government and secede only if
those demands were not met. But radical secessionism
prevailed, and there would be a united resistance against
the U.S. government.
Northern response
There was varied reaction in the North. Some felt the
Union was better off with the slave states gone; others
bore southerners no ill will. They merely wanted the South
to go in peace. Still others worried about the long-term
effects of letting secession proceed. President Lincoln
agreed, saying that no state could get out of the Union
without the consent of the other states.
Secession:
• In response to Lincoln’s victory, the southern
states seceded from the Union in 1861, forming the
Confederate States of America.
Original Confederate flag
Eventual Confederate flag
The Lower South Secedes
• In response to Lincoln's victory, South
Carolina left the Union officially on
December 20, 1860.
• Six other states of the Lower South
followed over the next few weeks.
• In early February 1861, delegates from
the seven states met in Montgomery,
Alabama.
• There they created a new nation, the
Confederate States of America, also
called the Confederacy.
• They elected Jefferson Davis, a former
senator from Mississippi, as their
president
5/24/2017
18
• Jefferson Davis
was named the
president of the
Confederacy.
Jefferson Davis
5/24/2017
South Seceding
20
Civil War: Union v. Confederacy
The War Starts
• The worry on many minds in early 1861 was what
the federal government would do about the
secession of the southern states.
• President Buchanan, serving his final months in
office, believed that secession was illegal.
• Still, he declared in a message to Congress that he
would not use force to prevent it.
• Abraham Lincoln, the one person with the power to
decide the government's response, left his home in
Springfield, Illinois, for Washington in early 1861.
• Lincoln believed secession was wrong.
5/24/2017
22
Lincoln Waits
Newspapers pressed Lincoln for a public
statement that would calm the nation’s fears, but
Lincoln worried about making matters worse.
Privately, Lincoln tried to convince southern
leaders they would not be interfered with, but he
was also committed to preserving the Union.
Outgoing president Buchanan agreed secession
was illegal, but said the Constitution gave the
federal government no power to stop it.
Buchanan rejected a request to turn over federal
property to South Carolina authorities, but he
promised he would not attempt to reinforce the
forts. Federal troops were all moved to the
stronger Fort Sumter.
The War Starts
• Lincoln emphasized his duty to enforce the laws of the United
States.
• In his First Inaugural Address on March 4, 1861, Lincoln spoke
directly to the Southerners:
• “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in
mine, is the momentous issue of civil war…. You have no oath
… to destroy the government, while I shall have the most
solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend it.” Lincoln
concluded his address with the following plea:
• “We must not be enemies. Though passion may have
strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic
chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and
patriot grave to every living heart … will yet swell the chorus
of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by
the
better angels of our nature.”
5/24/2017
24
Forming the Confederacy
Davis becomes president Confederate government
• Jefferson Davis was not
pleased with the news that
he had been selected as
president of the new
Confederacy.
• His sense of duty forced
him to accept the position.
• Davis gave an encouraging
inaugural address, but
privately he worried.
• The new nation had no
currency or even a press
capable of making some.
• The first cabinet meeting
was held in a hotel room.
• No issue seemed too petty
to debate.
• The Confederacy was on
shaky ground.
Compromise Fails
The
Crittenden
Compromise
The Peace
Convention
Lincoln’s
Inauguration
The Crittenden Compromise proposed
amending the U.S. Constitution to ban slavery
north of the old Missouri Compromise line and
guarantee that it would not be interfered with
south of that line. The plan was defeated by a
vote of 25–23.
A Peace Convention began on February 4,
1861, in Washington, D.C. Most of the
northern states were represented, as were all
the remaining slave states except Arkansas. It
offered a plan similar to Crittenden’s, but the
Senate rejected the plan.
Lincoln became president on March 4, 1861.
In his inaugural address, he quoted the
provisions of the Constitution that protected
slavery and offered assurances that he would
not interfere with the institution of slavery in
the South.
Fort Sumter
• tension was mounting in the waters
outside Charleston, South Carolina.
• Although South Carolina had
seceded from the Union, federal
troops continued to occupy Fort
Sumter, a federal fort on an island
in Charleston's harbor.
• A federal ship sent to supply the
fort in January had been forced to
turn back when Confederate forces
fired on it.
• Federal soldiers under the
command of Major Robert
Anderson were running out of
supplies.
• If Lincoln did not resupply the fort,
it would have to be abandoned to
5/24/2017
the
Confederates
27
Fort Sumter
• Fort Sumter,
South Carolina,
was important
because it
guarded
Charleston harbor
• Therefore, the
Confederates
attacked,
defeating the
Union soldiers.
* The Civil War had now begun!
Fort Sumter
• Lincoln struggled to come to a
decision.
• He had pledged to Southerners in his
Inaugural Address that “the
government will not assail you. You
can have no conflict without being
yourselves the aggressors.”
• Yet he had also taken an oath to
defend government property.
• Fort Sumter stood as a vital symbol
of the Union he had sworn to
preserve.
• To fight to keep the fort, or even to
send new troops there, might make
him responsible for starting a war.
• Yet to abandon the fort would mean
acknowledging the authority of the
Confederate government.
5/24/2017
29
Fort Sumter, S.C., April 4, 1861, under the Confederate flag.
Fort Sumter
• Remaining true to both of his
pledges, on April 6 Lincoln told the
governor of South Carolina that he
was sending food, but no soldiers or
arms, to Fort Sumter.
• On April 10, before supplies could
arrive, Confederate president Davis
ordered General P.G.T. Beauregard to
demand that Fort Sumter surrender.
• If Anderson refused, Beauregard was
to take it by force.
• Anderson did refuse, and on April
12, 1861, Beauregard opened fire on
the fort.
• After a 34-hour bombardment,
Anderson surrendered Fort Sumter
to5/24/2017
Confederate troops.
31
Ruffin, Pvt. Edmund, Confederate soldier
who fired the first shot against Fort
Sumter
Anderson, Maj. Robert, defender of Fort
Sumter
5/24/2017
33
Upper South Secedes
• By firing on federal property, the
Confederate states had committed
an act of open rebellion.
• As the defender of the
Constitution, Lincoln had no
choice but to respond.
• When he called for volunteers to
fight the seceding states,
Southerners saw his action as an
act of war against them.
• The Upper South states of Virginia,
North Carolina, Tennessee, and
Arkansas now seceded and joined
the Lower South in the
Confederacy, while the western
counties of Virginia seceded from
the state to remain in the Union.
• For the time being, the four
Border States remained
uncommitted to either side in the
5/24/2017
struggle.
34